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Sep 15, 2018

Fun-packed Jeddah Gamers Con a big draw

JEDDAH: The second Gamers Con, which opened its doors in Jeddah on Sep.
13, is one of the largest e-gaming events in the country. Held at
Baghdadiya, on Andalus Road, it features a number of entertainment
events, including video games, animations cosplay, board games and video
games challenges.Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Xbox all showcase their latest games at the event, which attracts children, teens and adults.
Figures artists and drawing enthusiasts have also been attending to exchange experiences and present their products and work.
Gamers Con offers visitors the opportunity to play exclusive games, such
as Man of Medan and Jump Force, before they become available on the
market.
Bandai Namco, one of the companies that pays a great deal of attention
to supporting Arab players, offers several games in Arabic. At Gamers
Con the news broke that for the first time Jump Force will be available
in Arabic, which will include a textual translation of the lists and
texts of the game. Bandai Namco said that this decision was a thanks to
Middle Eastern players who are particularly big fans.
Jump Force includes popular anime and manga characters such as Naruto,
Bleach, Dragon Ball, One Piece and Hunter X Hunter with stunning
graphics, and will be released in 2019 for PS4, Xbox One and Steam.
One of the youngest gamers, Faisal Alghamdi, who is 10 years old, told
Arab News: “I am here today to discover what exclusive video games are
upcoming and I am really excited about the new Spider-Man game.”
The three-day event included a performance by the Japanese video-game music composer Manami Matsumae on Friday.
Tariq Al Arabi Tarqan, the famous Arabic composer, songwriter and singer
of 1980s and 1990s cartoon theme songs, will appear with his son, who
also has a very big following, performing a list of their popular songs.
The three composers posed for pictures with fans. Tarqan, who had a
friendly chat with fans on stage, said: “I did not expect that almost 27
years later I would meet my little fans from the 1990s, all grown up
and still remembering their favorite cartoons.”
Manami Matsumae previously worked for Capcom in the 1980s, writing music
for games such as Dynasty Wars, Mercs, Magic Sword, and the original
Mega Man.
Manami Matsumae told Arab News: “We have been planning to visit Saudi
Arabia for a while and I was so excited about coming here. When I
arrived and saw this great exhibition I was so surprised and happy to
see that many of the booths seemed to be inspired by, and related to,
Japan and Japanese culture.”
She added: “I am so excited to perform for the Saudi audience.” She
revealed that she would perform songs from the Mega Man series.
The event includes challenges between two groups of the best gamers in the Kingdom.
One visitor appeared dressed as Deadpool (Wade Winston Wilson), a
fictional character in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Mohamed Al-Shamali said that he and his friend Firas Kashgary, who is
always keen to appear as the Deadpool character at any Comic Con or
Gamers Con event in Jeddah, were the team behind House Zofi. This
podcast, which discusses fantasy and science fiction, has been going for
four years, and is available on SoundCloud and iTunes. Shamali said
that they were going to do a special episode for the Gamers Con.
Shamali added that Firas “tries to perfect the character (of
Spider-Man). He said they were very excited about the community of
people there sharing their passion about games and cosplay. He said that
it was really great to gather people who have similar interests and
hobbies under one roof.
Haneen Hakami, one of the head organizers at Gamers Con 2018, told Arab
News: “We are pleased to be organizing Gamers Con for the second time in
a row along with Khayal company. We will also be organizing Sharqiya
city Gamers Con, details of which will be announced soon.”
Hakami added: “Tickets were sold out before the event began today. As
you can see, people are keen to get exclusive animation figures and pop
figures as you cannot find them all in one place except in such events.”
One of the participants was Farah Arif, who works for the company that
produced the first Saudi manga in the world, Kanz Al-Hattab
(Woodcutter’s Treasure), in collaboration with the Japanese production
company toy animation studio.
Arif said: “We pay huge attention to fostering Saudi talents, from
artists to games developers and mangaka. We are here today to present
our projects to visitors and we are currently working on a new Saudi
manga series and movie to be launched soon.”
She said: “We are also presenting the work of our Saudi students in
Japan. We had this competition on Twitter for artists and game
developers, and the winners were rewarded with the chance to join a
program organized by Square Enix and SNK. They were trained in how to
create animation, how to draw, how to program games and how to design
characters. The program lasted for 10 weeks.”
This Gamers Con is expected to attract many visitors from across Saudi
Arabia, as an increase in entertainment is one of the objectives of the
Saudi Economic Plan under Vision 2030.
The price of tickets for this year’s Gamers Con ranges from SR95 ($25) to SR280.